1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to methods for generating and sharing a virtual body model of a person combined with an image of a garment, methods for generating an image of a user in a garment, methods for automatically generating garment size recommendations, methods for visualising generating make-up and hairstyle recommendations, methods of generating a virtual body model of a user, methods for sharing a virtual body model of a person, and methods of enabling users to interact with virtual body models. The field of the invention includes systems which relate to these methods.
2. Technical Background
When shopping for clothes, users typically have entered shops which specialize in selling clothes, in order to try on the clothes before purchase. But the shops are usually closed for more than 12 hours per day, which limits shopping time. More recently, users have been able to purchase clothes from online retailers. During specification of the clothing for online purchase, users can specify a size, but they are unable to try the clothes on without first taking delivery of the clothes. If the clothes are not of the desired size or do not provide the hoped-for look, they may be returned, which entails expense. Current estimates are that return rates for clothes bought online can be as high as 30% —largely because returned clothes do not fit. So at the present time, to try the clothes on, the user must either go to the shop, or must wait for the clothes to be delivered, both of which take time and entail travel or delivery costs. It would be helpful if the user could try the clothes on in some way without having to travel to a shop, or having to wait to take delivery of the clothes. Considerable efforts have been made in recent years to provide computer-implemented systems that construct a virtual body model for a user—i.e. a virtual or computer-graphics based model of most (in some cases, all) of user's head and body; such models are ideally meant to accurately portray the user. These systems then provide a collection of virtual garments that, with varying degrees of accuracy, reflect the actual shape and size of a physical garment that can be bought be a user. A garment can be selected by the user and then fitted, or visualised, onto the user's virtual body model. This enables the user to see what the garment would look like; in particular, whether that style of garment suits the user and whether the fit for that specific size of garment is correct. However, such systems have failed to provide a complete and practical solution. The various aspects of this invention aim to address that failure.
3. Discussion of Related Art
WO2011033258A1 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMAGE PROCESSING AND GENERATING A BODY MODEL, which is incorporated by reference, discloses the following. Images of foreground objects in a scene are generated by causing electromagnetic radiation to be emitted having a first spectral power distribution from a surface of a first foreground object, which is adjacent or at least partially obscured by a second foreground object. A first image of both of the first and second foreground objects is acquired whilst the first foreground object emits electromagnetic radiation with the first spectral power distribution. A second image of the first and second foreground objects is acquired whilst the first foreground object is not emitting electromagnetic radiation or is emitting electromagnetic radiation with a second spectral power distribution which is different to the first spectral power distribution. An alpha matte of the first and second foreground objects is generated based on a comparison of the first image and second image.
WO2011033258A1 further discloses a method of generating a body model, comprising:
(i) defining at least one standard body model control point and/or standard control measurement on at least one standard body model; and
(ii) generating a subject body model by defining at least one subject control point and/or subject control measurement corresponding to each standard body model control point and/or standard control measurement in a subject body model corresponding to a subject body, wherein step (ii) further comprises step (ii-1) of generating at least one subject mapping of each standard body model control point and/or standard control measurement to its corresponding subject control point and/or subject control measurement.
WO2011033258A1 further discloses a method of generating a real life body model image, comprising: defining at least one body model control point on a body model image; defining a subject control point for each body model control point in a subject image of a real life subject; generating a mapping each body model control point to its corresponding subject control point; manipulating pixels of the body model image based on the mapping so that pixels in the body model image align with pixels in the subject image, thereby generating a manipulated real life body model image.
Japanese patent application publication nos. 04037383, 11073491 and European patent application publication no. 1909493 describe conventional systems whereby a background planar object and a foreground object (of any shape), which are located at different distances from an imaging device, are discriminated from each other by illuminating the scene with different radiation frequencies. These documents describe that the foreground object must be positioned sufficiently far in front of the background so that background and foreground lighting can be treated as independent, thereby allowing the foreground portions to be distinguished from the background portions. Such systems do not permit foreground objects located near to and overlapping each other in the foreground part of the scene causing occlusion, to be readily discriminated from each other.